puts_debuggerer v0.5.0

Yes, many of us avoid debuggers like the plague and clamp on to our puts statements like an umbrella in a stormy day. Why not make it official and have puts debugging become its own perfectly legitimate thing?!!

And thus, puts_debuggerer was born. A guilt-free puts debugger Ruby gem FTW!

In other words, puts_debuggerer is a Ruby library for improved puts debugging, automatically displaying bonus useful information such as source line number and source code.

Partially inspired (only partially ;) by this blog post: https://tenderlovemaking.com/2016/02/05/i-am-a-puts-debuggerer.html (Credit to Tenderlove.)

Instructions

Bundler

Add the following to bundler's Gemfile.

gem 'puts_debuggerer', '~> 0.5.0'

Manual

Or manually install and require library.

gem install puts_debuggerer -v0.5.0

require 'puts_debuggerer'

Usage

Simply invoke global pd method anywhere and it prints source file, line number, and source code in addition to output (works even in IRB). If the argument is a literal value with no interpolation, the print out is simplified by not showing source code matching output.

Quickly locate printed lines using Find feature (e.g. CTRL+F) by looking for:

• [PD]
• file:line_number
• ruby expression.

This gives you the added benefit of easily removing your pd statements later on.

This can easily be augmented with a print engine like awesome_print and customized to format output differently as per options below.

Happy puts_debuggerering!

Example Code:

# /Users/User/finance_calculator_app/pd_test.rb # line 1
bug = 'beattle'                                 # line 2
pd "Show me the source of the bug: #{bug}"      # line 3
pd 'What line number am I?'                     # line 4

Example Printout:

[PD] /Users/User/finance_calculator_app/pd_test.rb:3
   > pd "Show me the source of the bug: #{bug}"
  => "Show me the source of the bug: beattle"
[PD] /Users/User/finance_calculator_app/pd_test.rb:4 "What line number am I?"

Options

Options enable more data to be displayed with puts_debuggerer, such as the caller backtrace, header, and footer. They also allow customization of output format.

Options can be set as a global configuration or piecemeal per puts statement.

Global configuration is done via PutsDebuggerer module attribute writers. On the other hand, piecemeal options can be passed to the pd global method as the second argument.

Example:

# File Name: /Users/User/project/piecemeal.rb
data = [1, [2, 3]]
pd data, header: '>'*80, footer: '<'*80, announcer: "   -<[PD]>-\n  "

Prints out:

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
   -<[PD]>-
   /Users/User/project/piecemeal.rb:3
   > pd data
  => [1, [2, 3]]
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Details about all the available options are included below.

PutsDebuggerer.app_path

(default = nil)

Sets absolute application path. Makes pd file output relative to it. If Rails was detected, it is automatically defaulted to Rails.root.to_s

# /Users/User/finance_calculator_app/pd_test.rb                                 # line 1
PutsDebuggerer.app_path = File.join('/Users', 'User', 'finance_calculator_app') # line 2
bug = 'beattle'                                                                 # line 3
pd "Show me the source of the bug: #{bug}"                                      # line 4
pd 'What line number am I?'                                                     # line 5

Example Printout:

[PD] pd_test.rb:4
   > pd "Show me the source of the bug: #{bug}"
  => "Show me the source of the bug: beattle"
[PD] pd_test.rb:5 "What line number am I?"

PutsDebuggerer.header

(default = '*'*80)

Header to include at the top of every print out.

• Default value is nil
• Value true enables header as '*'*80
• Value false, nil, or empty string disables header
• Any other string value gets set as a custom header

Example:

PutsDebuggerer.header = true
pd (x=1)

Prints out:

********************************************************************************
[PD] /Users/User/example.rb:2
   > pd x=1
  => "1"

PutsDebuggerer.footer

(default = '*'*80)

Footer to include at the bottom of every print out.

• Default value is nil
• Value true enables footer as '*'*80
• Value false, nil, or empty string disables footer
• Any other string value gets set as a custom footer

Example:

PutsDebuggerer.footer = true
pd (x=1)

Prints out:

[PD] /Users/User/example.rb:2
   > pd x=1
  => "1"
********************************************************************************

PutsDebuggerer.print_engine

(default = :p)

Print engine to use in object printout (e.g. p, ap, pp). It is represented by the print engine's global method name as a symbol (e.g. :ap for awesome_print). Defaults to Ruby's built-in p method identified by the symbol :p. If it finds awesome_print loaded, it defaults to ap as :ap instead.

Example:

# File Name: /Users/User/example.rb
require 'awesome_print'
PutsDebuggerer.print_engine = :ap
array = [1, [2, 3]]
pd array

Prints out:

[PD] /Users/User/example.rb:5
   > pd array
  => [
    [0] 1,
    [1] [
        [0] 2,
        [1] 3
    ]
]

PutsDebuggerer.announcer

(default = "[PD]")

Announcer (e.g. [PD]) to announce every print out with (default: "[PD]")

Example:

PutsDebuggerer.announcer = "*** PD ***\n  "
pd (x=1)

Prints out:

*** PD ***
   /Users/User/example.rb:2
   > pd x=1
  => "1"

PutsDebuggerer.formatter

(default = PutsDebuggerer::FORMATTER_DEFAULT)

Formatter used in every print out Passed a data argument with the following keys:

• :announcer (string)
• :caller (array)
• :file (string)
• :footer (string)
• :header (string)
• :line_number (string)
• :pd_expression (string)
• :object (object)
• :object_printer (proc)

NOTE: data for :object_printer is not a string, yet a proc that must be called to output value. It is a proc as it automatically handles usage of print_engine and encapsulates its details. In any case, data for :object is available should one want to avoid altogether.

Example:

PutsDebuggerer.formatter = -> (data) {
  puts "-<#{data[:announcer]}>-"
  puts "HEADER: #{data[:header]}"
  puts "FILE: #{data[:file]}"
  puts "LINE: #{data[:line_number]}"
  puts "EXPRESSION: #{data[:pd_expression]}"
  print "PRINT OUT: "
  data[:object_printer].call
  puts "CALLER: #{data[:caller].to_a.first}"
  puts "FOOTER: #{data[:footer]}"
}
pd (x=1)

Prints out:

-<[PD]>-
FILE: /Users/User/example.rb
HEADER: ********************************************************************************
LINE: 9
EXPRESSION: x=1
PRINT OUT: 1
CALLER: #/Users/User/master_examples.rb:83:in `block (3 levels) in <top (required)>'
FOOTER: ********************************************************************************

PutsDebuggerer.caller

(default = nil)

Caller backtrace included at the end of every print out Passed an argument of true/false, nil, or depth as an integer.

• true and -1 means include full caller backtrace
• false and nil means do not include caller backtrace
• depth (0-based) means include limited caller backtrace depth

Example:

# File Name: /Users/User/sample_app/lib/sample.rb
PutsDebuggerer.caller = 3
pd (x=1)

Prints out:

[PD] /Users/User/sample_app/lib/sample.rb:3
    > pd x=1
   => "1"
     /Users/User/sample_app/lib/master_samples.rb:368:in \`block (3 levels) in <top (required)>\'
     /Users/User/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.4.0/lib/ruby/2.4.0/irb/workspace.rb:87:in \`eval\'
     /Users/User/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.4.0/lib/ruby/2.4.0/irb/workspace.rb:87:in \`evaluate\'
     /Users/User/.rvm/rubies/ruby-2.4.0/lib/ruby/2.4.0/irb/context.rb:381:in \`evaluate\'

Bonus

puts_debuggerer comes with the following bonus utility methods:

__caller_line_number__(caller_depth=0)

Provides caller line number starting 1 level above caller of this method (with default caller_depth=0).

Example:

# File Name: lib/example.rb             # line 1
# Print out __caller_line_number__      # line 2
puts __caller_line_number__             # line 3

Prints out 3

__caller_file__(caller_depth=0)

Provides caller file starting 1 level above caller of this method (with default caller_depth=0).

Example:

# File Name: lib/example.rb
puts __caller_file__

Prints out lib/example.rb

__caller_source_line__(caller_depth=0)

Provides caller source line starting 1 level above caller of this method (with default caller_depth=0).

Example:

puts __caller_source_line__

Prints out puts __caller_source_line__

Release Notes

• v0.5.0: custom formatter, caller backtrace, per-puts piecemeal options, and multi-line support
• v0.4.0: custom print engine (e.g. ap), custom announcer, and IRB support
• v0.3.0: header/footer support, multi-line printout, improved format
• v0.2.0: App path exclusion support, Rails root support, improved format
• v0.1.0: File/line/expression print out

Contributing

• Check out the latest master to make sure the feature hasn't been implemented or the bug hasn't been fixed yet.
• Check out the issue tracker to make sure someone already hasn't requested it and/or contributed it.
• Fork the project.
• Change directory into project
• Run gem install bundler && bundle && rake and make sure RSpec tests are passing
• Start a feature/bugfix branch.
• Write RSpec tests, Code, Commit and push until you are happy with your contribution.
• Make sure to add tests for it. This is important so I don't break it in a future version unintentionally.
• Please try not to mess with the Rakefile, version, or history. If you want to have your own version, or is otherwise necessary, that is fine, but please isolate to its own commit so I can cherry-pick around it.

Copyright

Copyright (c) 2017 Andy Maleh. See LICENSE.txt for further details.